On which I write about the books I read, science, science fiction, fantasy, and anything else that I want to. Currently trying to read and comment upon every novel that has won the Hugo and International Fantasy awards.

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Monday, January 13, 2014

Book Blogger New Year's Challenge of 2014 - Share a Blogger Horror Story

Share a Blogger Horror Story

As far as I can tell, I've mostly been lucky as a book blogger. I haven't found anyone plagiarizing my reviews, and have had very little commenting drama crop up here. I haven't had anyone try to bully me, or say that I had somehow bullied them, or had instances of any of the other myriad interpersonal conflicts that seem to plague so many other bloggers, possibly as a result of my avoiding posting reviews in forums like Amazon, which seem to engender bitter responses from authors and fans of authors who are enraged if someone doesn't give a book they wrote (or which they simply like) a glowing review. I haven't had any serious technical problems either with my blog platform or as a result of internet shenanigans caused by hackers or others. Basically, as far as this blog goes, all has been quiet on the Western Front.

That is not to say I have not run into some troubles, but they haven't been directly related to this blog. My most memorable conflict was engendered by a review that is now posted on this blog, but was originally posted on LibraryThing for the book Pureheart (read review), which I have described as the worst book I have ever read, an assessment that I still believe is accurate. After I had posted the review, the author got her nose out of joint and wrote me a scathing message in which, among other things, stated that she had gotten Amazon to remove my review. Which was odd, since I had never posted the review to Amazon, in keeping with my general policy of never posting reviews on Amazon. She then got a friend of hers (who had written a virtually incoherent blurb for the jacket of her book) to also start e-mailing me, and as one might expect, his e-mails were at best semi-literate. I infuriated them somewhat by correcting the grammar and spelling in their e-mails, which they responded to by saying they weren't concerned with getting those sorts of things right, because e-mails were just "informal communication" that didn't need a lot of thought. Or apparently accurate spelling or grammar. This went back and forth for a while, and then they stopped, but not before I got in touch with Amazon and confirmed that I had not posted a review on their site, and, as one might expect, they had not removed the review that I had not posted on their site. This was not the only push back I've ever gotten from an author, but it was the most vociferous, and ultimately, the most humorous, especially since her book was so patently awful.

OH you crack me up Aaron. As always. I love that you corrected their grammar in the emails. Oh this made my morning. I'm sorry you were bombarded with a stupidity waterfall - but at least you found fun within it. My grandmother always says, never mock the stupid, they can't help it - because they are stupid. But, it's so hard sometimes.

@Parajunkee: I have found that if you make fun of outraged people, they tend to turn into internet vapor quickly. Being outraged only really works if the target of your outrage takes you seriously. If you mock such outraged people, they often don't know how to respond to being laughed at.

OMG! How crazy that an author actually reached out to you! I have heard of this though many times and it's sad that we as reviewers can't just say how we feel. I have been waiting for the day when an author hits me up. I mean... ughh... here is my blogger horror story (http://angelasanxiouslife.blogspot.com/2014/01/blogger-horror-stories.html)

@My anxious life: I still say what I think about books. The only difference is that right now there is an author or two out there who are angry with me. Of course, their books were lousy, so I'm not too concerned.

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